The Lightning Product Audit
The Lightning Product Audit is a 30min exercise for Product Managers/Leaders to identify the key risks all products face - & to help you take concrete steps to address those risks.
The Lightning Product Audit is a 30min exercise for Product Managers/Leaders to identify the key risks all products face - & to help you take concrete steps to address those risks.
Why is it so important?
If your product lacks strong foundations, it will never succeed.
Most PMs focus on all the wrong stuff, such as how to prioritize their backlog of features.
What primarily matters? If we look at the data on the right, what are the two big things that determine product success?
Addressing the right problem (represented by "lack of market need")
Building a differentiated product solution i.e., something unique + valued (6/9 of the top reasons for product failure stem from lack of differentiation)
Your job as a product leader is managing risk. Whether for the product you currently manage, a product you might be interviewing for, or coming in as a consultant, you must immediately be able to assess these two key risks.
Get started with this template right now.
Value Stream Mapping Template
Works best for:
Project Management, Strategic Planning, Mapping
A value stream map can help you refocus your business on steps that actually provide value to your customers, cutting out wasteful and inefficient processes. With this template, you and your process team can collaborate on a value stream map today.
Prune the Product Tree Template
Works best for:
Design, Desk Research, Product Management
Prune the Product Tree (also known as the product tree game or the product tree prioritization framework) is a visual tool that helps product managers organize and prioritize product feature requests. The tree represents a product roadmap and helps your team think about how to grow and shape your product or service by gamifying feedback-gathering from customers and stakeholders. A typical product tree has four symbolic features: the trunk, which represents the existing product features your team is building; the branches, each of which represents a product or system function; roots, which are technical requirements or infrastructure; and leaves, which are new ideas for product features.
Basic Product Roadmap
Works best for:
Produc Roadmap
The Basic Product Roadmap template visually outlines your product's strategic direction from start to finish. It helps you plan and communicate your product’s goals, features, and timelines effectively. Ideal for product managers, it ensures all team members stay aligned on product vision and strategy, fostering better coordination and efficiency throughout the development cycle.
Stakeholder Mapping Template
Works best for:
Business Management, Mapping, Workflows
A stakeholder map is a type of analysis that allows you to group people by their power and interest. Use this template to organize all of the people who have an interest in your product, project, or idea in a single visual space. This allows you to easily see who can influence your project, and how each person is related to the other. Widely used in project management, stakeholder mapping is typically performed at the beginning of a project. Doing stakeholder mapping early on will help prevent miscommunication, ensure all groups are aligned on the objectives and set expectations about outcomes and results.
Status Report Template
Works best for:
Project Management, Documentation, Strategic Planning
A status report provides a snapshot of how something is going at a given time. You can provide a status report for a project, a team, or a situation, as long as it emphasizes and maps out a project’s chain of events. If you’re a project manager, you can use this report to keep historical records of project timelines. Ideally, any project stakeholder should be able to look at a status report and answer the question, “Where are we, and how did we get here?” Use this template as a starting point to summarize how something is progressing against a projected plan or outcome.
Goals-based Roadmap
Works best for:
Roadmap, Planning, Mapping
The Goals-based Roadmap template enables teams to set clear objectives and chart a course for achieving them. By defining specific goals and milestones, teams can track progress and adapt their strategies accordingly. This template fosters accountability and transparency, ensuring that everyone is working towards common objectives. With a focus on outcomes, teams can prioritize initiatives that drive the greatest impact and value.